Benefit jazz festival coming to Gainesville

If jazz is your thing, and even if it isn’t, the Jazz on the Green Festival with a purpose is an event you don’t want to miss.

Not only will you be immersed in jazz with two live jazz concerts featuring a stellar lineup, two parties, a wine tasting, a New Orleans-style Jazz Crawl in Gainesville, and a celebrity golf tournament in Ocala, but you also will be helping to raise funds for scholarships, non-profits, and youth support programs in Gainesville and Ocala.

Nicole Stewart, founder and co-organizer of Jazz on the Green Festival, or JOTG, said the festival is a world-class jazz festival with a purpose. “They are coming for great music, but we want people to understand it (also) helps children in the community.”

The Jazz on the Green Festival in Gainesville will be held May 5 and will feature a wine-tasting event from noon-2 p.m. at the Gainesville Fine Arts Association at 1314 S. Main St.; a New Orleans Jazz Crawl from 3-5 p.m. in downtown Gainesville; the concert from 6-10 p.m. at the Bo Diddley Plaza at 111 E. University Ave., and the Jazz Bash from 10 p.m.-1 a.m., with site to be announced.

The Jazz on the Green Festival in Ocala will be held May 6 and will feature a celebrity golf tournament from 7:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., the concert from 3-10 p.m. and The Set — An After Party from 10 p.m.-2 a.m., all at the Ocala Golf Course.

Tickets are $40 general admission (sale ends May 4; bring your own chair or blanket); $79 for a Saturday only day pass (sale ends May 5); $99 for two-day reserved seating; $139 for a two-day all access pass, but not golf; $75 per person for golf (sale ends April 30). Tickets are available at http://jazzonthegreentour.com/tickets/

Mike Powell, festival co-organizer, said the Jazz on the Green Festival, now in its fourth year in Ocala and its first year in Gainesville, is being offered here because “we had people in Gainesville asking why we don’t bring the program to Gainesville.” Powell is the owner of Mike Powell & Associates: Athletic, Academic and Scholarship Consulting LLC, based in Gainesville.

Stewart said the festival is a community-based initiative by Jazz on the Green to help youth-related educational and/or non-profit organizations to raise funds to support themselves.

According to a prepared statement, JOTG supports scholarships and programming for E=MC2, which was founded by Powell and stands for Expanding Minds through Competency and Consciousness through programs that include, but are not limited to, rites of passage for boys, college scholarships, classic literature, such as Shakespeare, musical awakening through symphonies and musical theater, country club sports, such as golf, tennis and swimming, and a STEM, or science, technology, engineering and math, curriculum, language acquisition, such as fluency in two and three languages and etiquette training.

Powell said non-profits in Ocala and Gainesville benefited from JOTG.

Some of the organizations in Gainesville that have benefited include Secret Santa Toy Giveaway, Boys2Men Mentoring Program at Kanapaha Middle School, PACE Center for Girls, and the Southeast Hurricanes Pee Wee Football program.

Powell said the festival will offer high caliber jazz and it's affordable.

“This is a world-class event that people have been asking for and deserve,” said Powell. “And we need them (people) to step up and embrace it because it’s for charity.”

Stewart said, “Gainesville deserves JOTG. It will assist the community.”

Jazz festival

What: The Jazz on the Green Festival, with a slate of activities

When: Noon-1 a.m. May 5 in Gainesville and 7:30 a.m.-2 a.m. May 6 in Ocala, rain or shine

Tickets: $40 general admission; $79 Saturday-only day pass; $99 for two-day reserved seating; $139 for a two-day all-access pass, but no golf; $75 per person for golf (sale ends April30)